The Israeli Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee held a hearing Monday on a proposed amendment to Israel’s Basic Law: Referendum, advanced by Land of Israel Caucus Co-Chairs MKs Yoel (Yuli) Edelstein, Limor Son- Har Melech and Simcha Rothman, that would change the way laws are administered in Judea and Samaria.
However, the hearing was cut short by delays caused by a vicious terror attack in Samaria that took the lives of an off-duty police officer and two retired school counselors and wounded eight others.
Three Murdered in Horrific Shooting Attack in Samaria
In addition, the hearing was short-circuited by statements made to the committee from representatives of the Tikva Forum of Families of Hostages and the Gevurah Forum of Bereaved Families, who were reacting to false media reports of an impending hostage deal.
The amendment under consideration would extend the Basic Law to territory under Israel’s jurisdiction in Judea, Samaria and Israel’s territorial waters.
If passed, the amendment would require the approval of at least 80 Knesset members for any government decision to cede territory to a foreign entity.
The proposed legislation follows the historic Knesset decision initiated by the Land of Israel Caucus earlier this year in which 80 MKs expressed their objection to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“In the event that the government decides to ratify an agreement or treaty that includes territorial concessions, future commitments for such concessions or commitments to cede territory contingent on fulfillment of stipulated conditions, after this decision or treaty is approved by a majority of Members of Knesset it must then be approved in a national referendum, unless it has been passed by a special majority of 80 Members of Knesset,” the amendment notes say.
Before discussion of the amendment began, Caucus Co-Chair MK Limor Son Har Melech noted in a brief statement that the morning’s deadly terror attack was carried out on a highway where she and her family travel regularly – and that her brother-in-law was among those who were wounded.
“When the terrorists were making their getaway from the scene of the attack, they shot his car full of bullets. He was lightly wounded,” she noted. “Today’s hearing could not be more relevant or timely; we must tell the story of the heroic residents who live under constant threat of terrorism.
“We cannot make territorial concessions or relinquish the land that these heroes defend. There is no question that if not for their presence, terrorism will engulf every inch of the Land of Israel. They are the bulwark protecting us all.
“The fate of the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria are the security barrier of the State of Israel, and their fate is the fate of the State of Israel as a whole,” she warned.
“The worst possible thing we can do is to send a signal to our enemies that there is even a chance we will hand over parts of the Land of Israel – and today’s hearing on this important amendment sends precisely the opposite message: We will not concede even one inch of our ancestral homeland.”
The committee will reconvene a hearing in the near future.
